| / English Dictionary |
TENDERNESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A tendency to express warm and affectionate feeling
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("tenderness" is a kind of...):
affectionateness; fondness; lovingness; warmth (a quality proceeding from feelings of affection or love)
Derivation:
tender (having or displaying warmth or affection)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A feeling of concern for the welfare of someone (especially someone defenseless)
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("tenderness" is a kind of...):
concern (a feeling of sympathy for someone or something)
Derivation:
tender (given to sympathy or gentleness or sentimentality)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A positive feeling of liking
Example:
the warmness of his welcome made us feel right at home
Synonyms:
affection; affectionateness; fondness; heart; philia; tenderness; warmheartedness; warmness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("tenderness" is a kind of...):
feeling (the experiencing of affective and emotional states)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tenderness"):
attachment; fond regard (a feeling of affection for a person or an institution)
protectiveness (a feeling of protective affection)
regard; respect (a feeling of friendship and esteem)
soft spot (a sentimental affection)
Derivation:
tender (having or displaying warmth or affection)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Warm compassionate feelings
Synonyms:
tenderheartedness; tenderness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("tenderness" is a kind of...):
compassion; compassionateness (a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering)
Derivation:
tender (given to sympathy or gentleness or sentimentality)
Sense 5
Meaning:
A pain that is felt (as when the area is touched)
Example:
after taking a cold, rawness of the larynx and trachea come on
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("tenderness" is a kind of...):
hurting; pain (a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tenderness"):
chafing (soreness or irritation of the skin caused by friction)
rebound tenderness (pain felt when a hand pressing on the abdomen is suddenly released; a symptom of peritoneal inflammation)
chafe (soreness and warmth caused by friction)
Derivation:
tender (hurting)
tender (physically untoughened)
Context examples:
“I knew you would not shrink at the last,” said he, and for a moment I saw something in his eyes which was nearer to tenderness than I had ever seen.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
To Marianne it had all the distinguishing tenderness which a lover's heart could give, and to the rest of the family it was the affectionate attention of a son and a brother.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Clinical signs and symptoms include pain and localized tenderness, at the site of the lesion.
(Osteoid Osteoma, NCI Thesaurus)
Patients usually present with abdominal pain and tenderness, fever, chills, and nausea and vomiting.
(Peritonitis, NCI Thesaurus)
His daughter attended him with the greatest tenderness, but she saw with despair that their little fund was rapidly decreasing and that there was no other prospect of support.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
He was moved deeply by appreciation of it, and his heart was melting with sympathetic tenderness.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
With a renewal of tenderness, however, they returned to her room on leaving the dining-parlour, and sat with her till summoned to coffee.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
He had his hand under the other’s arm as they entered, and helped him to a chair with a tenderness which one would hardly have expected from his appearance.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She advocated a high tone of sentiment; but she did not know the sensations of sympathy and pity; tenderness and truth were not in her.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
However, the king treated him with tenderness, as a well-meaning man, but of a low contemptible understanding.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
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